Ireland must ban social media use for anyone under 16, the Tánaiste has stated. Simon Harris said there needs to be a “baring of teeth” and strict enforcement of the digital consent age, reports The Mirror.
The Data Protection Act 2018 sets the age of digital consent at 16, meaning online service providers such as social media platforms, which rely on consent to process personal data, must obtain parental permission, reports The Mirror.
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Speaking on Virgin Media One’s Ireland AM, Mr Harris said: “The era of self-regulation is now over. There are now laws. There are now fines that can be levied. The European Commission this week has now opened an investigation into (AI tool) Grok. We need to actually see kind of a bit of baring of teeth here – there are actually laws, and they [social media companies] can’t be above the law. This can’t be the wild west anymore,” reports The Mirror.
He added: “I think we’re going to have to go further in this country though. We have a digital age of consent, that’s 16. We have to start actually enforcing that, and there’s good work being done on that. We’re going to start by March asking social media companies – and some of them are up for this, by the way – to take part in the rollout of age verification. But quite frankly, I believe we need to get to a point where if you’re under the age of 16, you can’t be on social media,” reports The Mirror.
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